For the fifth year in a row, international hotels located in Vilnius are giving a Christmas holiday to the visitors of the "Betanijos" social assistance and integration center of the Vilnius Archdiocese "Caritas". This year, despite extremely difficult times for the accommodation services sector, the veterans of the initiative - Novotel Vilnius Center and Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva - extended a helping hand. Ibis Vilnius Center hotel joined their ranks for the first time.
The current restrictions have changed the nature of this Christmas lunch. Instead of a traditional lunch, the food was prepared to take away. Hoteliers hoped that, despite this, it would help create a festive mood.
This year, hotels cooked hearty vegetable soup with pork for Christmas lunch, and served cupcakes of various flavors for dessert. We managed to feed even 300 people at lunch this year.
"2020 has been a difficult year for both businesses and people, but we must not forget our goodwill and support those who need it most, so we must continue to support all the same charitable initiatives that we had last year," shared Radisson CEO of Blu Hotel Lithuania, Daniel Baranowski.
"We are happy that despite all the challenges we have experienced this year, we can remain true to our values, which guide us by living and working every day. This initiative is very important for our entire team, because it carries a message of sharing and hope, which is especially needed this year," said Agnė Lingytė - Grybauskienė, general director of Novotel Vilnius Centre.
The manager of Ibis Vilnius Centre, which contributed to the initiative, Indrė Leškuvienė, was happy that she was invited to join this initiative and hoped that this tradition would live on and spread the message of sharing for many years to come.
